King Diamond and New Orleans seems like a match made in … errr, ummm, hell. However, it’s been a great many years since the master of macabre had made an appearance in the Big Easy. Needless to say, Jen and I were thrilled to learn that King Diamond was bringing his much-ballyhooed ‘Abigail’ tour, plus Bay Area thrash legends Exodus, to the Civic Theatre in downtown New Orleans on a Sunday evening in November. To celebrate the occasion, we made the 140-mile trek to the Crescent City early that day, and proceeded to spend a delightful sundrenched 70-degree November afternoon meandering through the French Quarter (where every bar and restaurant had televisions tuned in to broadcast the Saints’ merciless beatdown at the hands of the Redskins in our nation’s capital), drinking a lovely local beer or two in the streets (Reasonably Corrupt black lager for me, Shiner for the lady), and exploring the brand-new Crescent Park built on the remnants of old port/dock facilities on the banks of the Mississippi River. By 6:45 p.m., we made it down to the Civic Theatre, a beautiful restored old concert theater where we’d witnessed Amon Amarth and Sabaton last year. The crowd was bigger, older, grayer, and tamer tonight, but it was damn near a full house, as well it should have been for the spectacle that was to come. It was interesting to see the seated area in the balcony fill up with patrons long before many people ventured onto the floor in this general-admission event. This crowd wanted to be able to sit down and rock out in comfort, I guess. Still, that played directly into our hands, as Jen and I found a nice spot on the rail on the far side, directly in front of stage left, where we spent the evening, entirely free of the jostling, elbowing, kicks in the head, etc. that so often accompany such premium vantage points. Eventually, the Faith No More “We Care a Lot” intro tape rolled, and it was showtime. Straight up at 8:00 p.m., drummer Tom Hunting (clad in his traditional Golden State Warriors shirt) led his Exodus bandmates onto the stage in front of a large backdrop depicting the same futuristic scene – sans flesh-eating zombies – depicted on the cover of ‘Blood In Blood Out.’ Guitarist Kragen Lum struck the first chords of “Exodus,” and it was off to the races with a full-scale, undiluted Exodus attack. Early on in the band’s namesake tune, frontman Zetro Souza (decked out in Exodus workshirt) spotted me singing along word for word, came over, pointed, and sang right with me, mano a mano. It was awesome. (When I saw Zetro outside the bus after the gig, he shook my hand and said, “There’s the guy who was singing every single word.” Then he gave me grief for wearing a Heathen shirt instead of an Exodus shirt, haha.) Exodus had a few obstacles tonight. First, there wasn’t much room on stage, given the enormous King Diamond stage production set up behind their backdrop. The result seemed to be that the band, aside from the constantly moving Souza, was more stationary than usual. Guitarist Lee Altus never visited us over at stage left, and bassist Jack Gibson only ventured over our way one time. Second, it was definitely an older, partisan King Diamond crowd. Consequently, there wasn’t much recognition of the Exodus tunes, and there definitely was not much of a pit, which had to have been a tad disappointing to the band. Nonetheless, Souza was careful to praise and thank the audience at every turn rather than criticizing them for being weak and lame. As he puts it, “You catch more flies with honey.” Third, there’s the Gary Holt factor. Gary’s on tour with Slayer in Europe, so my longtime friend Kragen Lum from Heathen is, once again, acting as his stunt double. That’s not a problem for me; to the contrary, it’s incredibly awesome to see my friend tearing it up onstage with a band I’ve loved since I was 14 years old. But some folks grumble that it isn’t really Exodus if the bandleader isn’t there. I understand that viewpoint, but man, Kragen absolutely nailed his parts tonight and fits that band like an iron fist in a velvet glove. Anyway, Exodus only had 45 minutes to work with tonight, but they made every second count, covering a great selection of classic tracks plus a couple off the ‘Blood In Blood Out’ record. They also did a nice job revamping their setlist from what they’d performed on their US spring tour with Testament, rotating in the likes of “Body Harvest” (a manic, vicious number which went over huge), the aforementioned “Exodus,” and even pre-‘Bonded by Blood’ cut “Impaler” co-written by Paul Baloff and Kirk Hammett. (Only hugely glaring omission was “A Lesson in Violence,” but something had to give, I guess. I also missed “War is My Shepherd.”) The slower, pounding “Blacklist” was an easy favorite in the set, and “Bonded by Blood” (complete with taped explosion intro) ruled supreme, just as it has for three decades. “Strike of the Beast” ended the Exodus portion of the evening on a high note, albeit way too soon, as Zetro’s attempt to incite a ‘wall of death’ mostly fizzled. I love Exodus as a live band, and they were killer tonight. By the time their set finished, I was bathed in sweat, sore of neck and hoarse of voice. The Exodus attack, indeed. Would love to see them deliver us (to evil) a proper headlining set sometime soon, but this will tide me over for now. Setlist: Exodus, Blood In Blood Out, Body Harvest, Impaler, Blacklist, Bonded by Blood, Toxic Waltz, Strike of the Beast. I had some misgivings about remaining on the rail for the headliner performance. Having seen King Diamond in Atlanta on his comeback tour in October 2014, I expected tons of theatrics, stage props and an elaborate stage setup. The problem with staying upfront is that from up close, it’s hard to absorb the full scale of the production, as opposed to just the small piece that’s unfolding immediately in front of you. Nonetheless, Jen and I elected to stay put. Promptly at 9:15 p.m., after the somewhat unexpected choice of Uriah Heep’s “The Wizard” as intro music, the lights went dark and the curtain was lifted on King Diamond’s amazing stage set. Just like last year, it was a two-level affair, with stairs running up each side of the stage, and an overhead catwalk connecting the two. (Where was the fence along the front of the stage that KD used last year, though?) Behind the stairs on either side were massive inverted crosses, and a huge pentagram/goat loomed above the center of the catwalk. Lighting was even more over the top than in 2014. Of course the crosses and the pentagram lit up at suitably strategic, dramatic moments. Not only were there arcs of constantly changing, blinding bright lights along the side of the staircases, but there were also strobes beneath the stairs, copious amounts of stage fog, and an ever-shifting array of scrims along the side and back walls of the theater, that roadies would pull down in between songs to expose new/different backdrops. Speaking of the roadies, whenever they came out (for example, to bring acoustic guitars or adjust the drums), they wore black robes and hoods. There was a priest character who surfaced a couple of times (like in the song “Abigail,” when King croons, “I’ll get a priest / He will know how to get her soul back”). And there was the truly magnificent actress Jody Cachia, who delivered a spellbinding dramatic performance whether she was hobbling across the stage in a rubber mask as Grandma during “Welcome Home,” enacting the dark ritual during “Come to the Sabbath,” being burned at the stake in “Eye of the Witch,” becoming demonically possessed by a stillborn 68-year old infant as Miriam Natias, or being pushed down the stairs as Count de la Fey’s cheating wife on the 7th day of July, 1777 (that last being my favorite effect, as the pulsing strobe light and her deliberate movements made it look like you were watching her fall in slow motion). Jody rules, and is a huge part of the visual appeal of a King Diamond live gig. The props ranged from cool (Abigail’s miniature coffin, the cradle emitting smoke, the long-stemmed roses that King threw to the audience, including one to Jen) to kind of hokey (the Abigail dolls, mostly, including the overstuffed one that King pitched over the back of the staircase after “The 7th Day of July 1777”). Of course, there was also a band onstage too, although it was easy to lose sight of that detail at times. I had intentionally grabbed a spot on the rail directly in front of where I knew guitarist Andy La Rocque would be, because he rules. And he did. My god, La Rocque is so precise, so fluid, so in control that it’s simply a joy to watch him play guitar, whether he was wielding a flying V or an axe custom-painted with the ‘Abigail’ cover artwork. The problem was that I kept getting distracted by everything else that was happening on stage, so even though Andy was standing right in front of me, it was super-hard to concentrate on his brilliant playing. As for the King himself, “wow” is the operative word. The man is in his 60s. He’s got a heart condition and a bad back, he chain-smoked for decades (though he’s now smoke-free, I hear), plus he sings in a crazy falsetto that would wreck most people’s throats. Not only did King Diamond sing splendidly and powerfully all night long (ably helped with backing vocals by his wife, Livia Zita, to fill out the piercing high notes), but he also moved about the stage in spry fashion all night long, confidently ascending and descending the stairs, working the front of the stage from side to side, and playing a mean-ass air guitar on his bone microphone alongside La Rocque. Honestly, King Diamond looked to be in better shape than I’ve ever seen him before. He’s obviously taking good care of himself and his regimen of taking a day off after every two or three shows seems to be working well. He spoke little between songs, but he didn’t need to say anything. The music, and the all-encompassing stage presentation, did all the talking for him. By the way, King’s sporting a different makeup design for this tour. Gone is the predominantly white base with crosses etched on his cheeks. Instead, he looks more like a raccoon this time, with a thick swath of black across his eyes and upper cheeks, and just a little white on his lower cheeks and sides of his jaw. A small detail, but definitely noticeable. In terms of song selection, it’d be very difficult to find fault with what King Diamond’s performing on this tour. Last fall’s setlist dragged in a few spots, I thought, but this one moved from strength to strength. The first four tracks out of the chute were all bona fide KD classics: “Welcome Home,” “Sleepless Nights,” “Halloween” (not played on last year’s tour), and “Eye of the Witch.” Then it was Mercyful Fate time, with jaw-droppingly amazing runs through “Melissa” (also newly added for this tour) and “Come to the Sabbath.” The remainder of the set was the ‘Abigail’ album, which is pretty much flawless. Oh sure, not every track is quite as killer as “Black Horsemen” or “Family Ghost,” say, but ‘Abigail’ really is remarkably consistent for its 40-minute running time. I’m not generally a fan of the “play-an-entire-album” concert marketing gimmick, but in this case it was entirely justified, both conceptually and musically. My only complaint was that it all ended too soon. Earlier shows on this tour ran a full 90 minutes, but King Diamond has since axed two songs (“Spider’s Lullabye” and, sadly, “Evil”) from the set. Sure, an 80-minute headlining set errs a bit on the side of brevity, but when it’s all this compelling, this wildly entertaining, and this intense, nobody can possibly feel short-changed. It was a nice touch when, after the final notes of “Black Horsemen” had rung out and his bandmates had taken their final bows, King stayed on the stage alone, walking slowly from one end of the stage to the other, sans microphone, looking people in the front rows in the eye and saying “thank you” to us. He even reached out to grasp hands of a few fans, until he nearly lost his balance and had to be caught by security. I don’t know how many more times I’ll get to see King Diamond. But it was simply captivating to see the man, the band, and the stage production all at such a high level tonight. I know two dates later in the tour will be filmed for a DVD. Can’t wait to see the results and relive this incredible experience over and over again. For now, hail the King, long live the King. Setlist: Welcome Home, Sleepless Nights, Halloween, Eye of the Witch, Melissa, Come to the Sabbath, Funeral, Arrival, A Mansion in Darkness, The Family Ghost, The 7th Day of July 1777, Omens, The Possession, Abigail, Black Horsemen.

KING DIAMONDCenter Stage, Atlanta, GAOctober 11, 2014I’ve always enjoyed seeing King Diamond in concert.I had witnessed the man’s solo tours in support of the ‘Voodoo’ and ‘House of God’ albums, and had seen him with Mercyful Fate on the ‘In the Shadows,’ ‘Time’ and ‘9’ tours.But he had been away from the scene for so many years and had experienced such serious health issues in the interim that I assumed I would never have an opportunity to see King Diamond again.After all, he’s 58 years old with a history of heart problems and back ailments.So when I heard that he was touring the US again this fall, and kicking off the tour in Atlanta, I jumped at the opportunity.I was not alone, apparently.Tickets to the 1,200-capacity Center Stage venue (the home of ProgPower USA for the last 14 years) sold out in a flash, as King Diamond maniacs, old and young, from all over the southeastern United States converged on midtown Atlanta on a warm, muggy Saturday night.As my friend Hoyt and I stood in a prodigious line to get into the building (it snaked all the way down Peachtree Street, around the corner on 17th Street and almost down to the corner of Spring Street), we spied the tour buses parked in a nearby parking lot.King Diamond is traveling in three coaches, plus an 18-wheeler to transport the stage set.That last detail is important.This was certainly the most lavish stage production I had ever seen King Diamond employ, as he is effectively cramming an arena-sized production into a small theater.The results are nothing short of breathtaking.The opening act tonight was Jess and the Ancient Ones, a heretofore unknown entity to me that fits comfortably within that “occult rock” genre that seems to be all the rage these days.The seven-piece band (female singer, three guitarists, bassist, keyboardist, drummer), were given just a sliver at the front of the stage, with a bank of four unchanging lights on each side of the stage bathing them in green for the entire set.I know some people are crazy about this band, but honestly they didn’t do much for me.None of the seven members moved around at all.Jess (the singer, I’m assuming that’s her name) had a good strong voice, but never addressed the crowd all night long.The uptempo rockin’ parts were pretty cool, I suppose, but there were way too many trippy psychedelic boring parts that sucked all the energy out of the music. If anyone in the room was on acid, they probably thought it was killer.I wasn’t, though, so I didn’t. Eh, whatever, I wasn’t here for the opener anyway.At 9:15 p.m., the curtain dropped and the King Diamond band stormed the stage to the classic “The Candle” off ‘Fatal Portrait.’The stage looked amazing.There were twin staircases flanking the drumkit on either side, with a walkway connecting them overhead.This allowed band members and actress (more about her in a minute) to be at different elevations for different songs, and even to act out parts that involved staircases (such as a notable passage of “The Black Horsemen”).Up above the walkway, suspended from the rafters, were two giant upside down crosses on either end of the stage, with a huge goat-adorned pentagram in the middle. These pieces could all be illuminated even if the rest of the stage was dark, which made for some extremely cool lighting effects.There were cloth scrims along the back and sides of the stage, giving off the appearance of the inside of a church.There was a large platform/box in front of the drums that King and the actress would stand on, with a hole at the bottom that shot jets of compressed CO2 gas at strategically selected moments.There were four white pillars with spooky demon heads, one on each side of the base of each staircase.There were two recessed antique lamps that sometimes were lit and sometimes were not.And, oh yeah, there was what looked to be an 8-foot wrought iron fence spanning the entire front of the stage, separating band from audience.King would sometimes thrust his bone microphone through openings in the fence to encourage audience participation.It was an unbelievably cool looking stage, and it must cost a fortune.Right out of the chute, we were hit with a punishing volley of bona fide classics, with “The Candle” giving way to “Sleepless Nights.”After that 1-2 punch, King called out, “Wanna see my Grandma?”Sure enough, out came Grandma in a rubber mask and wheelchair, as the band tore through a devastating rendition of crowd favorite “Welcome Home.”Then came “Never Ending Hill,” a good song off the most recent King Diamond studio album (“even though it’s our newest album, it’s still pretty old,” he admitted, “but we hope to change that soon,” alluding to new material in the works) that most people did not seem to recognize.At this point, the roadies emerged (wearing black robes and black hoods) to remove the fence (it was on wheels and could just be rolled away), which I was beginning to find distracting.“Puppet Master” was up next, with longtime King Diamond actress Jody Cachia (I remember having a nice chat with her at the King Diamond show at Toad’s Place in New Haven on the ‘Voodoo’ tour in May 1998, so she’s been part of the show for many years) playing the role of tortured puppet to perfection, flopping around the stage in herky jerky movements.Then came another classic “At the Graves,” which sounded all kinds of awesome tonight, guitarists Mike Wead and Andy LaRocque putting on a clinic of metal guitar mastery.Abruptly, another set change followed, as one layer of backing scrims fell away, revealing a new set depicting the King Diamond logo on the side walls of the stage, with a giant illuminated image of King himself in the middle, right beneath the pentagram.At this point King commented that it had been a very long time since the band had played Atlanta, so now seemed a good time to play something older still, a song about “something you can drink.”Sure enough, out came Jody again in her Grandma getup, this time bearing a tea tray and a nasty knife, as the band played “Tea,” which segued into “Digging Graves” after King struggled with Grandma.He acted out the grave-digging part, hoisting a shovel in the air and creating the illusion of scooping stage fog up and flinging it over his shoulder.The medley concluded with “A Visit from the Dead.”Without warning, the entire building went uncontrollable batshit berserk as the band lit into Mercyful Fate’s “Evil.”Wow, the whole room just lit up with energy as this evergreen blasted out of the P.A., sounding every bit as vibrant and powerful today as it did in 1983.King obviously appreciated the crowd response and teased, “What do you think, should we do some more Mercy?”The crowd roared.“The stage needs to be more black,” he said, at which time the backdrops surrounding the stage fell away once again, revealing black curtains all around.This marked the beginning of “Come to the Sabbath,” one of the greatest heavy metal songs ever written, and holy crap it sounded incredible.Jody was back onstage in a skimpy black dress, whirling and dancing and acting out the ritual, brandishing a black candle, a white candle, and a goat skull.The place went absolutely bonkers for this song, which was my favorite moment of the entire set.I would have driven the 700-mile roundtrip just to see this one song played so magnificently.The next song was “Shapes of Black,” which honestly is kind of a throwaway, nondescript tune on ‘Give Me Your Soul … Please.’The natural inclination might be to question its inclusion in what was otherwise such a powerpacked set.Wrong.The visuals for “Shapes of Black” were spine-tinglingly eerie and effective.The stage was almost completely dark, except that King was sitting on the box in the middle of the stage brandishing a lantern.The band members stayed up high, atop the walkway and out of the way for this song, with good reason.Jody returned to the stage in a black spandex bodysuit that covered her from head to toe, acting as an unholy apparition crouching and lurching and torturing poor King.I felt chills during this one, crap song or no.“Eye of the Witch” closed out the regular set with a bang, another timeless gem in the King Diamond catalogue, with the crowd singing along every word and punching their fists in the air.When the band came back out for an encore, things took a turn for the campy.Jody was back on stage in her Grandma regalia.King said, “the bitch is back,” and incited the crowd to chant “burn her.”Two roadies (one in physician’s garb and the other in priestly vestments) rolled out a large coffin into the middle of the stage, and the band fired up the instrumental “Cremation.”Over the span of a minute or two, King coaxed, cajoled and ultimately forced Grandma into the coffin, even opening a little door along the front of the coffin so we could look in and see her.The door was closed, the lid was lifted, and King tossed two small light-up plastic toys (like you might see thrown from a Mardi Gras float) into the coffin, simulating fire.Smoke rose from the interior of the coffin.Priest and doctor pulled down the sides of the coffin, and behold, Grandma was gone, leaving only charred bones behind.(Not sure how they pulled off this magic trick.Where did Jody go and how did she get out?)The physician put his stethoscope on the ribcage to confirm that Grandma was absolutely, positively deceased.The song ended, and that was that.All kind of silly, but it comes with the territory, I suppose.Not quite.King had one more trick up his sleeve for us.As a final encore, the band ripped through the glorious “Family Ghost” and the legendary “Black Horsemen” off the ‘Abigail’ opus.Predictably, Jody was out on the stage dressed as a very pregnant Miriam Natias, pushing King down the stairs before giving birth to small plastic baby doll signifying the incarnate evil of Abigail.It was a perfect ending to a perfect gig.I had plenty of doubts about King Diamond’s physical constitution going into the show, but he looked strong, hale and hearty, moving around the stage with confidence, energy and gusto this evening.And his voice sounded spot-on all night long too, though he was getting help from his wife, Livia Zita, standing at a microphone at the side of the stage to buttress those thinning falsettos.It didn’t matter.He sounded incredible and moved with the agility of a 38-year old rather than a 58-year old.His backing band sounded phenomenal.Wead and LaRocque are master craftsmen on the guitar, drummer Matt Thompson is a beast, and the new Swedish bassist is no Hal Pitino, but he played his parts well and certainly looked the part of mail-order heavy metal bassist.It was all over rather early, with King Diamond taking final bows at around 10:40 p.m., so around 85 minutes altogether.I didn’t feel cheated or shortchanged, though.Don’t get me wrong:I would have loved it if the band had come back out onstage and given us “Halloween” and “No Presents for Christmas.”But it wasn’t meant to be.And it’s okay.This set really was all killer, no filler.No boring drum solos or interminable audience singalong parts.Just double-barreled spooky Euro metal, delivered with surgical precision and a theatrical flair from top to bottom.Also, King’s got to preserve his energy for the remainder of this 19-date U.S. tour.He’s no spring chicken anymore.(Hell, who amongst us is?)I have an ominous feeling that this was the last time I’ll ever see King Diamond live.If so, I have no regrets.He is still at the top of his game in 2014, and I was lucky enough to witness it.Hopefully you will be able to say the same if this tour finds its way anywhere near you.In a just world, this would be captured on DVD, as well, to be recorded for posterity.It’s that good.Setlist:The Candle, Sleepless Nights, Welcome Home, Never Ending Hill, Puppet Master, At the Graves, Tea/Digging Graves/A Visit from the Dead, Evil, Come to the Sabbath, Shapes of Black, Eye of the Witch, Cremation, Family Ghost, Black Horsemen.-- Kit Ekman